at not less than one fifth) required of the Jews to be given for the
support of religion, and in charity, was intended to convey to us
similar instruction. For though the law of tithes or double tithes is
not binding upon us, the great sacrifices which they were required to
make, are designed to have a _moral influence_ on succeeding
generations. It is not the idle record of a bygone race, or of a
dispensation that has vanished away; it utters a voice to us; it is the
living exemplification of a principle which we are bound to adopt. If
even the poor among the Jews could give so much, the poor can still give
bountifully in proportion to their means,--and, were they disposed, how
profusely might the rich lavish their munificence. With the fact before
us of the great sacrifices the Jews were commanded to make for the
support of religion in their own narrow bounds; when we consider the
breadth of the field we are called to cultivate,--the spiritual
necessities of the perishing millions of our race, the opportunities to
reach them, the worth of the undying soul, the revenue of glory its
salvation will yield the Saviour, what sacrifices ought the poor, at the
present day, to make in their penury, and the rich in their abundance,
to promote the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls; and how
terrible the doom of those who refuse.

These principles, requisitions, promises, and examples, show us that our
sacrifices should be _great_, and the amount of our contributions
_large_, when either the worldly or spiritual necessities of others
demand our aid; while they leave the treasuries of benevolence to be
filled by the spontaneous flow of each individual soul.

The desire, therefore, to fasten on the consciences of men the
obligation to contribute periodically a certain portion of their income
or property, as universally binding, is not to be gratified by arguments